Over Due Happy Ending
by jenbachand
Summary: They were both over due for a happy ending. What could have happened if someone else had been called. AU picking up after 4x23 Bloodlines. SaraBrass.


_**Over Due Happy Ending**_  
Title: Over Due Happy Ending  
Author: jenbachand  
Rating: Teen  
Pairing: Brass/Sara  
Disclaimer: I made no profit from the writing of this fic.  
Spoilers: None  
Summary: A look at how things could have turned out.  
Author's Note: **mingsmommy** has been poking everyone to write a Brass/Sara fic of specific details, and I some how volunteered myself. Thanks to **phdelicious** for both the beta and the thread that started it all. Strictly AU. Takes place as an alternate ending to 4x23 Bloodlines and what would have happened if someone different had been called.

"We have to call someone," the police officer said after she asked him not to call Grissom. Sara really didn't want Grissom knowing she had done something so stupid. It would be just one more reason for him to chastise her and her feelings for him. She should have listened to Brass when he pulled her aside a few weeks ago. She had been heading down a slippery path.

"Call Jim Brass," she said as she put her head in her hands and lowered her head as the officer walked off. The buzz she'd had when she left Nick and Warrick had more than worn off now, and her head was throbbing with the low buzz of the police station.

When she heard the chair squeak a little later, Sara was hesitant to open her eyes. The police officer hadn't come back in to say who they had gotten to come pick her up. When an arm slid around her shoulders, she could smell the distinct aftershave that Brass always wore. She leaned into the hug and willed herself not to start crying.

His hug was so comforting, certainly more comforting than any gesture from Grissom had ever felt. Grissom looked at her these days as if she was an alien that he didn't know how to approach. Brass had been trying to be there for her lately. Noticing things that were wrong and trying to help her out.

"Come on, let's get you home," he said tugging her up out of the seat. He kept his arm around her until they got to his car, where he opened the door for her.

The ride to her place was quiet. Sara was sure he would have something to say about this, but he didn't say a word until they pulled into her parking spot.

"I'm having impound drop your car off in the morning," he said. His hands were gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were turning white. Before he could say anything else though, Sara cut him off.

"Come on up Jim. You have things to say and I don't really want to be alone right now," she said opening her car door. As she headed to her apartment, she heard his door close and footsteps following her. At least he hadn't left.

Brass took a seat on her couch while she started coffee and went to change clothes. When she returned with two cups of coffee, he patted the couch for her to take a seat next to him. He slid his arm back around her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. Coffee was consumed, admonishments and advice handed out, and never once did his arm move. At some point she nodded off against his shoulder. He eased her down on to the couch, covered her with the blanket off the back, and let himself out.

Brass had been true to his word, and her car had shown up the next morning. When she woke up that morning she had felt lighter to some degree. Brass had understood, and she had learned more in one night about him, than in all four previous years in Vegas.

Her meeting with the higher ups went better than she thought. Required counseling, three weeks suspension, which they would deduct off her time on the books, so at least she'd still have a paycheck, and consult with her supervisor. The last part had probably been the worst. Having to face Grissom and acknowledge her demons all in the same timeframe was more troublesome than the suspension.

On the fourth day of her suspension, after she had meticulously cleaned everything in her place, seen the counselor twice, and run more miles than in the previous month total, her phone rang.

"Hey Sara, its Jim."

"Oh hey," she said snagging a bottle of water out of the fridge. "What's up?"

"I wanted to know," there was a significant pause before he finished. "I wanted to know if you wanted to go to dinner tonight."

Sara Sidle was a clever girl. She had gone to Harvard early, gotten a master's degree at Berkley, and had the highest solve rate of her team. But Jim Brass hesitating on the phone while asking her to dinner had her a little perplexed.

"Are you asking me on a date," she queried as she toyed with the label.

"Well, uh, yeah. You know. I show up with flowers, you wear something pretty, we go eat somewhere nice, and I drop you off at your place with hopes of a good-night kiss."

Four years of waiting on a socially inept entomologist to make a move hadn't gotten her anywhere, so taking a deep breath she replied, "Sure. Where are we going?"

"La Collina in Henderson. They have a few vegetarian dishes. I called ahead to make sure. You do like Italian don't you?"

Sara looked down at the label she unknowingly shredded. He had made an effort, paid attention to her diet, and was so sincere in his nervousness. It nearly rivaled her own butterflies.

"Yeah, Italian is good," she said smiling into the phone. "How's eight sound?"

"Sounds good," he said sounding relieved.

"And Jim, I love lilies," she said closing her phone. Now she just had to find the right outfit.

In the end she had worn a dress, Jim had brought lilies, they had eaten a wonderful meal, and he had gotten his good night kiss. There had been more dates, more kisses, and the night before her suspension was up, he had made her dinner at his place, and she had taken him to his bed and reacquainted herself with the joys of sex.

Her return to work was only made stressful by Grissom's once again cold shoulder, but having Jim waiting to take her home, and often giving her the evil eye until she packed up everything, made her feel lighter than she had in years.

There had been more lab gossip than she cared to shake a stick at. Half the team gave them goggle eyes when they saw them together as a couple, but it was made all the easier by his warm hand in hers or on her back guiding her somewhere.

Whispered words of love and comfortable closeness filled her days, and she wondered why she'd ever wasted all that time on Grissom. Jim never was aloof with her. He told her what he thought and how he felt. Even when he was upset or mad, but mostly how much he enjoyed their relationship and how much he loved her. Plus he had a wicked sense of comedic timing.

When she was late, after a harrowing bout with a ton of medicines to combat a cold and the flu, he simply smiled and phoned her OB/GYN for an appointment. When they left the doctors office they proceeded directly to a small chapel that was thankfully without a theme. Her case with Nick all those months ago still gave her an ill feeling.

"I know it's not every girl's dream to hear from her doctor how her medications interfered with her birth control, but Sara, I really can't be too upset about it. I've never, ever been happier, than I have been with you. I had actually been planning to ask you on our anniversary," he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box. Inside was a simple engagement ring. Nothing flashy and she thought it all the more lovely for it.

"So we're going to make a go of this whole family thing?" She asked with a watery sniffle.

"I figure we're both over due for a happy ending. What do you think?" He had a hopeful expression and she couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, I think we could use a little happy ending as well." She handed him the box and he slipped the ring on her finger. "Come on; let's go make an honest woman of me."


End file.
